We've
written about lab-grown
meat before on Neatorama, but that holy grail for carnivores that
love the taste of burnt flesh yet squeamish about killing animals is one
step closer to reality, thanks to Prof Mark Post of Maastricht University:

Prof Post is using cells called myosatellites - a form of muscle
stem cell that is normally used by the body to repair damaged muscle.

Myosatellite cells can be extracted from a mature animal without
killing it and have numerous advantages. Firstly, they are "one
way" cells, in the sense that they can only become muscle cells.

Secondly, as the muscle cells proliferate they have an innate tendency
to organise into muscle fibres. All that Prof Post has to do to form
a strip of muscle is provide anchor points for the fibres to grow around,
and the muscle forms by itself. "It's a bit like magic," he
said.

I did read an article a wee while back where they speculated on using wolf, lion, panda stem cells to grow and sell meat from ie panda steaks. The article closed with why not human...no one died and it is 'ethical', perhaps even your own stem cells.